


Winter

by vivaforever597



Series: Tales of a Librarian [4]
Category: Beauty and the Beast (1991), Disney Princesses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-17 00:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10582848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivaforever597/pseuds/vivaforever597
Summary: The spell is broken: Belle's friends are human again, and the castle once again glistens in marble and gold. But her prince is still... a beast.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Includes Belle invoking a few mild swears. Don't like, don't read.

Belle felt like screaming.

It wasn’t a new feeling. Actually, she’d felt that way more than she hadn’t over the past week. She had done everything right: fallen in love with the prince, cried when she thought she’d lost him, thrown herself over his limp body… And sure enough, she’d seen the magic begin to unwind. Her friends had been restored to their normal human forms, and the castle’s dark stone had fallen away to reveal gleaming marble and silver and gold.

And yet, the Beast remained … a beast. Trapped in a body that wasn’t his own.

She’d spent the past several days sequestered in the library, trying desperately to find the answer in any of the dozens of books on the occult. None provided any answers. She occasionally had company from Lumière or Cogsworth or Mrs Potts, taking a break from their respective work, completing the restoration of the castle to its former glory, or from Chip, forcibly removed from his mother’s work area. Even the Beast dropped in, though he somehow seemed less interested in her findings than the others.

Belle knew he was distressed: he’d been slinking around the castle more quietly than he had in months. It was a grave disappointment, after all, knowing that the magic that ought to have worked didn’t. Fearing that he might be forever condemned to this semi-animal form. But he was taking it in better stride than she thought she would have. It made an odd kind of sense; he’d grown used to this body, after all, even though he was so eager to be rid of it.

So when he dropped by the library, he mostly sat in the chair and stared blankly at the fire, occasionally asking Belle how her research was going, but doing so in a tone that indicated little more than casual politeness.

 _Damn it, what was the answer?_ She growled in frustration, a noise that almost could have come from the Beast. It was met with a quiet clearing of the throat. Belle spun to see Mrs Potts standing behind her, offering a tea tray. Belle blushed; she didn’t like to upset the kind woman, after all. But Mrs Potts smiled, seeming to understand exactly what Belle was thinking. In one smooth motion, she set the tray on the nearest table and swiveled toward Belle, then stepped toward her and patted her arm. “It’s all right, child,” she said kindly.

Belle half-snorted, half-sighed. “I wish I shared your optimism, Mrs Potts,” she replied.

Mrs Potts took her arm again and squeezed her wrist, as she would to encourage a timid child. “No, child, it really will be all right. If the master stays like this, well, at least we’re no worse off than before.”

“I just wish I could understand,” Belle replied, air escaping from between clenched teeth. “Everything ought to be just fine! If I could break the rest of the spell, then why not _him_?” She felt herself nearing tears. “You all love him enough, don’t you? God knows I love him enough. Don’t I?!” she demanded.

“Of course, of course,” Mrs Potts said soothingly. She took the would-be princess in her arms. “But my darling, don’t you know it was never up to you?”

Belle sighed as she returned the hug. “I know. It was his mistake that led him to this. He was the one who had to … I know all that! I’ve read it all!” She started to sob, now out of frustration rather than desperation.

Mrs Potts pulled away to hold her at arm’s length. “Then don’t you think, my girl, that he’s the only one who can find his own way out of this?” Belle cocked an eyebrow. “You can love him, and I, and Lumière and all the rest, but what does it matter if he doesn’t love himself?”

Belle’s breath hitched. _There_ was her answer. Not in a book, but in the simple wisdom of a kind woman.

She nodded. “Maybe you’re right,” she said slowly, though something in her knew there was no “maybe” about it. Somehow, instinctively, she _knew_ this was the answer.

Until he could respect himself, he doomed himself to remain in his beastly form. That… was it.

“And there’s not a damned thing I can do about it,” she whispered to herself.

 

 _When you gonna make up your mind?_  
_When you gonna love you as much as I do?_  
_[’Cause things are gonna change so fast…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PDlGUdDF8Y)_

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, for this story I really worked backwards from the quoted lyric to the plot, then as I started writing it, I found that it was a good chance to explore (however briefly) Belle's faults - namely, placing too much trust in books and not enough in humans. It's a fault I can certainly understand; although it's not a problem I have, I relate to Belle for a lot of reasons, one of them being her turning to books and fantasy worlds to escape small town hell. So that was a nice slant I wasn't really expecting the story to have, because I actually love exploring the faulted parts of characters I adore (as long as they're still made appealing!).
> 
> Also, trans metaphors (albeit imperfect ones) yasss.


End file.
